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Team
FEM's team is ambitious and impact-driven. We are passionate about creating a world in which everyone can make informed childbirth spacing decisions and no woman has to die from complications related to unwanted pregnancies.
Tolu manages FEM's scaling projects. Her work includes collaboration with local implementation partners in South East and South West Nigeria. She ensures we build the structures necessary to jointly implement evidence-driven and context-sensitive campaigns.
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As a health and empowerment enthusiast, Tolu has more than ten years of experience in implementing and advising reproductive, maternal, and child health projects. She has worked with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the Population Services International across the northern and southern regions of Nigeria, largely on reducing maternal mortality through the uptake of family planning and other maternal health services. Tolu has obtained a BSc in Nursing and Midwifery and an MSc in International Health and Management.
Kabiru Abdulkareem
Research & Process Manager
Kabiru oversees FEM's monitoring and research processes. He works closely with radio stations to ensure that ads and shows air on time; supervises the execution of field research; quality controls campaign material and research data; and supports the external engineering team in monitoring FEM's RCT transmitter technology.
Kabiru is a detail-oriented system thinker with a focus on supporting disadvantaged communities in northern Nigeria. Before FEM, he managed field activities at New Incentives, a Give-Well recommended organisation that increases the uptake of childhood vaccines. He also supported eHealth Africa in implementing GIS information technology programmes to monitor polio immunisation campaigns. Kabiru has a BSc in Public Administration and a diploma in Mass Communication and Media Studies from the University of Abuja, Nigeria.
Director, iDevPro-Africa
Dr. Mansur leads FEM's operations in northern Nigeria together with Lia. He manages relationships with enumerators, writers, production studios, and radio stations. He also ensures campaign content is in line with the latest SBC research and feedback from key stakeholders.
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Dr. Mansur is one of the foremost family planning experts in Nigeria. Highlights of his work include serving as the Regional Manager for Marie Stopes in northern Nigeria and the Senior Family Planning Advisor for Palladium's Family Planning Technical Support Unit project. He has supported public health interventions with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Pathfinder International, and FHI360. In addition, Dr. Mansur is a co-founder of M-SPACE Consulting, which has been funded by the Gates Foundation to build family planning support units. Dr. Mansur earned a Ph.D. in International Health from the University of Nicaragua.
Lia Boldt
Director of Programmes
Lia oversees content creation and research processes. She works closely with Dr. Usman, Tolu, and implementing partners to develop and implement FEM's radio campaigns. She also contributes to organisational strategy.
Lia enjoys driving forward cost-effective solutions to global health challenges and is a passionate intercultural learner. Prior to FEM, Lia spent multiple years living and working in diverse cultural contexts in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Germany, and South Africa. Some highlights of her work include supporting education and health projects at UNESCO and GIZ and co-founding the nonprofit Sahakom e.V. to enhance global education. Lia holds an MSc in Developing and Evaluating Interventions from the University of Glasgow, where she specialised in family planning and women’s health.
Anna Christina Thorsheim
Executive Director &
Co-founder
Anna Christina oversees all organisational activities -- ensuring team members are supported and setting strategy for cost-effective impact at scale. She manages partnership, research, campaign development, and scaling.
Anna Christina is an ambitious and impact-driven entrepreneur, committed to evidence-based decision-making and passionate about improving health and well-being. She first became aware of the impact misinformation has on agency and maternal health in 2016 while researching socio-cultural barriers to family planning uptake in rural Tanzania and has dedicated her work to solving this problem. Before starting FEM, she co-founded a health-tech startup developing VR-based phobia treatment and worked as Head of PR at a startup incubator for for-profits aiming to achieve SDGs. Anna Christina studied Industrial Economics and Technology Management at NTNU.
Head of Research
Dr. Usman leads data analysis, ensures learnings are implemented, and communicates findings to stakeholders. He contributes to designing quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments and works with partners to train enumerators and collect data.
Dr. Usman is an analytical thinker with attention to detail and a passion for leading behaviour change among vulnerable groups in Nigeria. He has more than ten years experience in advising research projects and training students in Nigeria. He investigated climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Bergen and lectured on social sciences and research methods at the Ahmadu Bello University. Dr Usman also consulted for the World Bank’s Development Impact Evaluation Research Group. He holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Leicester.
Harmony Hart
Head of Partnerships
Harmony is in charge of outreach and communications at FEM. She communicates with stakeholders and partners and the public, handles fundraising and grant reporting, and provides generalist support in operations and to the Programmes team.
Harmony aspires to help reduce unchosen suffering and alienation. She has ten years of experience in nonprofit communications and leadership including as a writer, editor, and board president, and has founded and run several small businesses. She has a BA in English and philosophy.
Dr Adesida is founder and director of our implementing partner in western Nigeria: Rhealyz Global Empowerment Initiative ‘Rhealyz Africa.’ He also founded Food Gist Hub, an agricultural communication project and HeForShe Champion.
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Dr Adesida devotes his professional time and skills to sustainable development. He lectures on agricultural communication technology. His organisation, Rhealyz Africa, uses Communication 4 Development as a tool to reach out to communities.
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​Director, Parkers Mobile Clinic
Dr Umeh is director of Parkers Mobile Clinic, FEM's implementing partner in southern Nigeria.
Dr Umeh is a public health physician and telemedicine expert, member of the International Medical Informatics association and Healthcare Informatics Society of Nigeria. He co-authored "Fundamentals of Telemedicine and Telehealth," a textbook published by Elsevier in 2020. He is a member of the International Medical Informatics Association and Healthcare Informatics Society of Nigeria. For his work, he was awarded the Edinburgh University Postgraduate Scholarship, Commonwealth Youth Council Covid 19 Grant.
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Rowan leads FEM’s legal and financial operations. He ensures systems comply with the governing authorities of the countries in which we operate, and manages payroll and accounting activities and optimises FEM’s financial processes.
Rowan cares deeply about working for positive change. Before FEM, he led an international project for the Bristol History Commission Report following the toppling of a statue of Edward Colston. He has also supported the operations, community engagement, and public relations of various charities, including Animals Aotearoa and Stop Ecocide. Rowan holds a BSc in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Bristol.
Rowan Lund
Operations Manager
Advisory Board
Dr. Amina Aminu Dorayi​
Nigeria Country Director,
Pathfinder International
Prior to Pathfinders, Dr Dorayi served as a Technical Director at the USAID-funded Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector Plus project and a Senior Technical Advisor for Abt Associates. She specialises in operations and strategy. She was previously the Associate Deputy National Program Manager and Director of Service Delivery at the DFID-funded Partnership for Transforming Health Systems Phase II project. Dr Amina Aminu holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Liverpool.
Dr Stein is the Chief Economist of the evaluation firm IDinsight, where he is also a Partner. As Chief Economist, Dr Stein sets and maintains technical standards throughout the organisation, developing exciting new projects and partnerships, and helping manage IDinsight’s team of technical experts. Dr Stein is also a co-founder of Giving Green, which provides evidence-based guidance to help donors and volunteers fight climate change. Prior to IDinsight, he was an economist at the World Bank, where he specialized in agriculture and forestry impact evaluations. Dr Stein holds a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Morenike Omaiboje​
Director, Flint Changemakers
Patrick is a co-founder and Chair of the Board of the GiveWell-incubated charity, New Incentives, which works on child health in northern Nigeria. He is also a director at the NGO incubation program, Charity Entrepreneurship, where he's mentored numerous evidence-based non-profit startups. Patrick served as a political advisor with Switzerland’s economic development agency, where he focused on negotiations around the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. He holds a Master’s in Political Science and Communications from Universität Bern.
Natalya Katsap
Co-founder, Global Business Coalition on AIDS, TB, and Malaria
Morenike is a Board member of the Women’s Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON). WOCON, of which Morenike was previously the director, is a non-profit organisation committed to enforcing women’s and children’s rights and attaining equality, development, and peace. Morenike managed large donor-sponsored projects involving grassroots outreach, behaviour change, community mobilization, awareness creation, and advocacy. She currently specialises in capacity building and human resources.
Manpreet Singh
Deputy Director in Family Planning, Gates Foundation
Natalya is an associate partner with McKinsey, based in Oslo. Focused on energy, she serves primarily oil and gas operators, as well as broader energy companies on digitally enabled performance transformation.
Before joining McKinsey, Natalya was a founding member, and program director of an NGO start-up focused on HIV/AIDS in Russia, which ultimately became part of the Global Business Coalition on AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
Dr Singh is Deputy Director in Strategy, Planning & Management, for Global Development at the Gates Foundation. He previously served as an Associate Partner in Dalberg's Nairobi office.
His experience spans a range of global health topics, including research, strategy, and policy. He has experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating projects across the world, including in China, India, Kenya, Malawi, and Nigeria.